"The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is one of two religious works constructed by Thomas Jefferson. The first, The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1804, but no copies exist today. The second, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1820 by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's condensed composition excludes all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine."
https://uuhouston.org/files/The_Jefferson_Bible.pdf Free here
Reading it I couldn't help but see Jesus as something of a troll. Like in this passage:
JESUS went unto the mount of Olives.
And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought in a woman caught committing adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
They say unto him, Master, this woman was caught committing adultery, in the very act.
Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, to test him, that they might have cause to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, began going out one by one, beginning at the eldest: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself, he said unto her, Woman, whither are they gone? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Another great example of his trolling was when he was cornered by a bunch of people wanting to stone him to death:
>31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, 'I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?' 33 We are not stoning you for any good work,' they replied, 'but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.' 34 Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are 'gods''? (He's quoting the 82nd Psalm of the Old Testament here)[1] 35 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came--and Scripture cannot be set aside-- 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37
[1]82 Psalm if the Old Testament: I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’
I said we are gods on this Earth because of our power to initiate the creation of a new life and the power to end a life.
There are a number of more esoteric quotes attributed to jesus like the one I posted above which make this case quite compelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2DbsuzTt6g
There are many quotes where Jesus spoke about the union of all people within him and within god. This is basically the same as the Buddhist concept of Indra's Net: the divine unity and mutual interpenetration of all things.
>"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus"
>"I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me."
>"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ."
This idea seems to be the logical basis for many of his more commonly known teachings:
>"Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you."
>“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
>"whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters, you do unto me"
This last quote seems to indicate that when people realized all of the above, they would also realize their equality with jesus as children of god; which is essentially blasphemy to the modern day mainstream interpretation of the King James translation.
>"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
Great quote.
To be clear, I think Jesus is trolling the right way. :-)
"Blessed are the meek; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Except there is no kingdom of heaven, after all; and the meek are not blessed but oppressed. The supernatural stuff was there to show that the oppressive nature of the world and its cruelty was not the only thing; there was hope beyond it in the world to come, which gave the strength to believe in something absurd.
Otherwise its just John the Baptist; a person preaching who ended up dead on the whims of the powerful.